Ghost 31
by Zederek
Summary: A story i thought up while i was playing Starcraft about one of the many Ghosts and the Battalion commander. I dont know where or if i'm going to end this.
1. Chapter 1

I dont own Starcraft or anything Blizzard related. The only thing i own are my characters.

My first actually posted story so enjoy, hate whatever fits your fancy.

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Ghost FB-31 chuckled in amusement as the siege tanks shell shredded the latest batch of Zerg before going to one of the few chairs in the bunker and sitting down. Closing his eyes from the glare of his HUD he cycled through the radio chatter of the base listening to the unhurried reports from around the base.

He actually found it very odd that this base didn't have the usual screams of dieing marines and breach reports echoing through the radio with the strained voice of the commander trying to stop the latest disaster before calling a retreat. The base, jokingly called "Salvation" by the commander, is surrounded by turrets and bunkers which by now had easily mowed down thousands of the Zerg's forces and it even had enough supplies to keep the soldiers and engineers in good spirits.

31 opened his eyes as he heard the private signal ping on his comm and widened them a little when the commander's personal insignia flashed in front of his eyes. He quickly opened the channel and kept himself from blinking as the grinning visage of the commander popped into his HUD.

"Hey man how are you doing?" The commander's voice echoed in 0031's helmet causing him to narrow his eyes as he turned down the volume making the commander chuckle before his face suddenly became serious.

"Okay thirty one I know you were listening to the radio chatter and even though it sounds bright and cheery the Intel reports that have arrived are saying that the zerg are getting ready to come running down the bridges and cliffs in numbers that will completely crush us."

31 didn't even blink as he processed this new information, going through all the reasons the commander had decided to contact him only he could only come up with one clear reason. "What's the target I'm nuking sir."

The commander grinned "You're the best Ghost in Salvation so you get the toughest target in the Zerg hive. You get to paint the hatcheries and blow them to high hell. The other ghosts will be targeting their defenses and troops to make it easier for the marines to clean up." He turned to talk to someone off screen before turning back to 31 and reaching for the comm. switch. "Your drop ship is already en-route."

"Sir, I have a question."

The commander paused, his eyes flashing in interest. "This is new. Ask away soldier."

31 closed his eyes in thought before asking "Why now sir? Why right before the zerg attack us with enough force to wipe out Salvation? Shouldn't we have attacked the zerg before this point?"

The commander straightened and gave a small sigh. "Yes I realize that I'm asking you to sneak into the middle of the Zerg hive and yes it's as close to suicide as I can order you to do." He raised his hand as 31 opened his mouth. "Can it soldier; I know that's what you were actually thinking." 31 clamped his mouth shut his teeth clicking in annoyance while carefully keeping the rest of his face expressionless.

"There are two reasons I'm attacking now. The first is because if we had attacked before now we would've lost a lot more soldiers and the second reason is research on the zerg's DNA. Specifically how they can take other species DNA and change it so dramatically." The commander cocked his head to the side as a thrumming sound filled the air and filtered through the comm. "Your ride's here 31 and that's all I'm going to say on the matter. But tell you what, when you come back I'll tell you the rest over steak dinner." He finished with a grin before quickly turning off the COM link.

31 sat there until one of the marines carefully poked him and pointed at the drop ship that was burning a hole in the ground as it waited for him. Shaking his head he stood up and grabbed his AGR-14 assault rifle as he cleared his mind for the mission.


	2. Chapter 2

31 ignored the pilot's inane chatter as he strapped himself in and checked his psi-screen making sure that the three other Ghosts' in the dropship couldn't hear his thoughts. They had all spread themselves out, the physical solitude that it gave little compensation from the intense lack of mental solitude when the psi-screens were turned off.

The roar from the thrusters helped with the solitude as it drowned out the pilot's voice leaving 31 to file through the scouting reports. The reports that flashed through his HUD really didn't help his state of mind. He could only find one hole in their defenses big enough for him to slip through and a large amount of overlord's flying throughout the zerg hive didn't really help.

_THUD Hissssss_

31 flipped his HUD off and watched in amusement as the chair in front of him fell through the now melted floor. '_And I'm still somehow alive despite this being the fifth time I've got to watch this show.'_ He thought as he was flung against the seats restraining bar the now cursing pilot flipping the dropship into a dive for the ground.

"HOT DROP!" the pilot yelled from the cockpit as the hatch in the rear smoothly opened showing 31 the two Mutalisk's that had interrupted the flight. Ignoring them the Ghost's checked their equipment as the dropship leveled out and stopped, hovering fifteen feet above the wasteland ground.

Hitting the release button 31 checked to make sure that his assault rifle hadn't left his back and activated his cloak before calmly jumping through the hole in front of him. He enjoyed the brief feeling of weightlessness before rolling through the impact as he hit the ground. Standing up he sprinted away from the dropship ignoring the screams of the Mutalisks as they turned around for another attack.

He stopped and flicked his HUD back on checking the suits power levels and his location happily noting that he only had a relatively short run before he arrived at the Zerg hive. Looking back he saw that the dropship was struggling to gain altitude as it turned towards Salvation but the Mutalisks flew by again their acidic spit slamming into the cockpit sending the dropship into a nose dive.

31 turned back towards the Hive as the dropship crashed into the ground and the mutalisks flew overhead screaming in triumph. He waited until they had flown out of sight and turned his cloak off happy to conserve the energy and he turned his psi-screen off listening for any thoughts.

(Great there) _Poor pilot _(goes our ride) 'Hi guys'.

31 rolled his eyes at the last thought and set off towards the Hive keeping an eye for anymore Zerg. Climbing a small hill he looked over the edge and was greeted by the depressing sight of Zerg creep and the fleshy buildings that the zerg lived in. He ducked as a small flight of Scourge flew overhead and turned his cloak on.

'_Why do I get to go to Hell?' _31 thought as he checked for that little tiny break in defense he had seen in the reports. Finally seeing it he vaulted over the edge and set off, praying to the god the marines talked about, praying that the overlords didn't see him.


	3. Chapter 3

'_Which way which way which… THAT WAY!' _

31 ran around the infested command center ignoring the zergling's cries as they ran by focusing only on getting away from the overlord that drifted towards him. He had almost been in range of the hatcheries but the overlords had suddenly scrambled around the base floating in every direction forcing 31 to run around to avoid them.

Skidding to a stop at the edge of the spawning pools 31 looked back and breathed a sigh of relief as the overlord floated away. Checking around 31 noticed that the overlords had all gone to the edge of the base and were now patrolling along the edge of the creep.

'_And there goes my escape route. Course I didn't have one to begin with.'_

31 checked his suits energy as he jogged back towards the hatcheries and winced. With his current energy levels he would be lucky to have enough time to get the nuke all the way to the targets let alone get out of the Zerg base. '_Wonder how many zerg I can kill before they tear me apart.'_ He thought as he ran past a hydralisk.

Suddenly his radio picked up the command centers AI. "Nuclear launch detected. Nuclear launch detected. Nuclear launch detected."

'_Flick. I'm running late.' _

Finally getting into range of the hatcheries 31 dropped to his knee and attached his laser to his rifle. Looking down the scope turned the laser on as the middle hatchery focused in his scope and waited.

"Nuclear launch detected."

'_God I hate that sentence.' _He though as the seconds ticked by on his HUD every one seeming to be longer than the last as he waited for the nuke to hit.

Suddenly, all he could see was light causing him to curse and close his eyes as a rumbling filled the air and dust clouded around him. Ignoring all the distractions by sheer force of will 31 kept his rifle aimed at the hatchery waiting for the click sound that would tell him when the nuke was locked on.

Finally hearing the click 31 opened his eyes and stumbled back his eyes, showing a confusing kaleidoscope of white and black. He blindly turned his goggles to complete dark and closed his eyes knowing that the flash from his HAVOK tactical nuke would make him completely blind if he didn't take precautions.

Then his world was nothing but pain as the nuke landed.

__--__

The Commander grinned as the last nuke launched. "Holy Hell, 31 actually managed to get to the hatcheries."

He had been watching the holomap since he had sent the Ghost's dropship out and had directed the rest of his battalion into the dropships and sent them flying towards the zerg base as soon as the first nukes had launched.

"ETA on the fleet?" He asked the Commands AI.

"Two minutes till the fleet arrives Commander." Came the deadpan reply.

Nodding the Commander watched as the little mushroom cloud appeared in the Zerg's hatcheries and the remaining zerg scrambled around the shattered defenses of their base trying to recover from the sudden destruction. Finally the dropships started landing and the marines jumped out immediately slaughtering the few zerg near them as the tanks rolled out and changed to siege form to start bombing.

The Commander turned on the COMM. "Okay ladies and gentleman you know the drill. Firebats in front, Marines and Goliaths covering, with the tanks rolling behind changing to siege every thirty feet and bombing everything to hell. Have fun."

Hearing the heavy footsteps of his aide he turned around and accepted the latest orders from Dominion Command. Flipping through them he grunted in annoyance wishing that they would stop sending him out into the Fringe worlds and just let him go back to Korhal for some R&R for once. He stuffed the orders into his uniforms pocket and turned back to the holomap giving a little smile as his battalion marched through the Zerg's remaining swarm and demolished the rest of the buildings.

He opened a COMM link to the Field Commander. "Jackson is there any sign of 31?"

"No sir, the other Ghosts showed up when we landed but we haven't seen 31 or his IFF. I'll report if we find anything though sir."

"Okay, carry on Jackson."

The Commander continued to direct the troops until finally all the Zerg forces had been wiped out and the hunter teams were traveling around making absolutely sure. Stretching out the kinks in his back the Commander turned around screamed as he came face to face with the glowing eyes of a Ghost's goggles.

"You're not the bravest Commander in the world are you sir?" 31 asked as the commander dropped into a fighting stance.

Staring at the Ghost the Commander slowly straightened himself. "You ever heard of the radio? Wonderful way to tell superiors you're still alive."

"My suit and goggles got fried by the nuke sir." 31 said as he stared straight ahead still standing at attention.

"At ease soldier and give me a full report." The Commander said leaning back against the holomap as 31 gave his report.

After listening to the report the Commander let out a small breath of air and grinned "Glad I sent you in 31, I honestly don't think anyone else could've survived that. But of course I've already got new orders for the battalion. Tomorrow is going to be busy so go get some rest." He said as he picked up the small pile of papers that his aide had left near him.

31 nodded and went to move before pausing "Sir, permission to speak freely."

"Granted." The Commander said without looking up from the papers.

"You still owe me a steak dinner." 31 said as he left the command deck.

The Commander paused in his reading and frowned _'Why didn't he forget? Steaks expensive, even for me.'_


End file.
